This past Thursday I celebrated the tenth anniversary of ordination to the priesthood. Sometimes the days are long, other times the days pass quickly, but it’s hard to believe that I’ve been a priest for a decade. I look back and can remember some great moments at each of the three parishes at which I served, and I can remember some moments that I’d probably rather forget at each parish. But that’s life, isn’t it? It’s no different for married couples, who promise fidelity in good times and in bad.
What is it that keeps priests and married couples going through the ups and downs? It’s love. Last week I mentioned that love is one of the most fundamental things for humanity, and that Bishop Barron defines love as willing the good of the other. To love is to act in a way that places the other above oneself, and to do what it takes to help the other, no matter the cost. As a priest, love means getting up at 2 a.m. to go to a nursing home and baptize and confirm a dying man who had earlier requested to a nurse to become Catholic; love means standing with a family and helping them grieve in the hope of the resurrection as they bury their newborn baby, or dad or mom; love means bringing a couple together in marriage, some of whom have been preparing for marriage for over a year, some of whom have just found out that the intended is about to be deployed overseas and they need to be married soon so that the US military will pay for the move to military housing; love means feeling the crushing sting of defeat in a State Championship game one year, and crying tears of pain with the seniors who will never play organized soccer again, as well as the sweet taste of victory in the State Championship game the following year, and crying tears of joy with the team who achieved the goal they set for themselves before the season even began; love means baptizing, forgiving, and confirming all in the name of Christ; and yes, sometimes love even means correcting a sheep who is starting to wander away, and the pain of that correction not having its intended effect to call back, but pushing the sheep farther away.
As a priest, as of last Thursday, I have celebrated or concelebrated 4,073 Masses, baptized 116 people, confirmed 60 people, blessed the marital unions of 67 couples, and been the principal celebrant of 174 funerals, including 4 grandparents and other family members. There are a lot of things that have gotten me through all of these times in three parishes: a loving family; friends, especially one or two that I can vent to; my brother priests; from time-to-time a drink or two; but most of all, the Eucharist: the Body and Blood of Christ.
And the reason why the Eucharist is what really gets me through is because the Eucharist is love. Follow the connections: God is love, Jesus is God, the Eucharist is Jesus, so the Eucharist is love. And it’s not only true intellectually. We know that the Eucharist is the fruit of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, the fruit of His love for us. And His love for us is precisely proven in that He was willing to die for us. Jesus Himself said that no one has greater love than to lay down his life for a friend. The weight that Jesus had in saying that was that, in about a day from when he said it, He would lay down His life for His bride, the Church. But since most of the apostles would not be there, and because He wanted the Church through all time to be able to be joined to that sacrifice of love, He instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood on Holy Thursday, so that we would not only think of His love, or remember His love, but we would be able to partake of His love.
But the Eucharist isn’t simply for priests to give them strength and spiritual nutrition in their vocation. No matter what your vocation, the Eucharist is meant to strengthen and nourish you. It is meant to increase your joys and lessen your sorrows. By receiving love Himself, the Body and Blood of Christ, you are meant to be empowered to love more, to will the good of others, whether it’s the members of your family, your co-workers, or even the stranger you meet on the street. The Eucharist is the love which allows you to show love by caring for a sick family member all through the night; to go to sporting events for your children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces; to support friends and family as they begin married life, or even as they struggle through married life; to walk through the valley of the shadow of death for those you know; to work to the best of your ability with integrity in your job; to treat everyone as created in the image and likeness of God.
I thank God for my ten years as a priest. I thank God for sending me to East Lansing, to Adrian, and now here in Flint. But most of all, I thank God for the Eucharist, the fruit of Jesus’ love, which allows me, unworthy though I am, to love to the best of my ability, and act in Jesus’ power and name.
